Tsiolkovsky Konstantin Eduardovich

Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky is a Russian and Soviet scientist, inventor and teacher, the founder of theoretical cosmonautics. He is often called the "father of cosmonautics."

Biography

Childhood and learning difficulties. At the age of 10, due to scarlet fever, Tsiolkovsky almost completely lost his hearing ‑ this prevented him from studying properly at the gymnasium, and as a result, he engaged in self—education.
Self-study in Moscow. In his youth, he lived in Moscow for three years and studied physics, mathematics and chemistry in the library of the Rumyantsev Museum (now the Russian State Library), spending almost all the money on books and reagents.
Pedagogical work. For many years he taught arithmetic and geometry at county schools, including in Kaluga, where he lived most of his life. His students appreciated him very much for his visual explanations and experiments.
Kaluga as the scientific center of his life. It was in Kaluga that he wrote major works, set up experiments (including building one of the first wind tunnels in Russia) and developed ideas about space flights.

Main scientific ideas and contributions

"Exploration of World spaces by jet devices" (1903) is a key work where Tsiolkovsky mathematically substantiated the possibility of space flights using rockets. In it, he derived a formula relating the speed of a rocket, the velocity of the outflow of gases and the mass ratio (today it is called the Tsiolkovsky formula).
Multi-stage rockets. He was one of the first to describe in detail the idea of a "rocket train" — in fact, the prototype of a multi-stage rocket that drops spent stages in order to fly further.
Ideas about space stations and space exploration. Tsiolkovsky talked about the creation of artificial satellites, orbital settlements, the use of solar energy in space, and even terraforming.
Airships and aerodynamics. Before becoming interested in rockets, he was seriously involved in the theory of airships (in particular, he proposed a design with a metal shell) and aerodynamic experiments.

Interesting facts

Tsiolkovsky was not only a scientist, but also a science fiction writer: for example, the novella "On the Moon" and the novel "Beyond the Earth" contain scientifically based descriptions of space travel and life in zero gravity.
Despite his deafness, he actively corresponded with colleagues and published works; many ideas were not taken seriously at first, but later became the foundation of rocket science.
In his philosophical works, he developed the ideas of cosmism — about the future of mankind, which will go beyond the Earth and explore the universe.

Heritage

A crater on the Moon, the city of Tsiolkovsky near the Vostochny cosmodrome, numerous museums, streets and awards (for example, the Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Academy of Sciences) are named after Tsiolkovsky. His house museum in Kaluga is one of the main places where you can see personal belongings, manuscripts and models created by the scientist.